Mohair berets

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The "army of mohair berets", a well-known photo published by Gazeta Wyborcza

Mohair berets (Polish: moherowe berety), or "the army of mohair berets" (Polish: armia moherowych beretów) is a common term used in present-day Poland as an epithet against a major section of listeners of the ultra-Catholic Radio Maryja. These listeners (mostly women) are religious, usually elderly people of traditionalist views, adhering to the Radio's charismatic director Father Tadeusz Rydzyk.

This group of people is often regarded as an important factor in the 2005 parliamentary and presidential elections in Poland, contributing to the defeat of both the liberal and the ex-communist parties and candidates.

The epithet arose from the head covering – berets, made out of wool or mohair and often worn by elderly women in Poland. Berets are also a common head covering in many armies, particularly in Polish Army, where a different beret colour distinguishes the army department. In Polish, soldiers are often nicknamed after the beret colour, e.g. the commandos squads are commonly named "red berets" (Polish: czerwone berety).

The term "mohair berets" is a straight paraphrase of such army nicknames, and was used for the first time in a satirical TV programme, depictured with the "army" of elderly women with berets on their heads, walking down the street and "attacking" young people kissing on the benches and kiosks selling erotic and pornographic magazines with their umbrellas. Since then the term has been in common use by a good part of Polish youth, and later has gained a wider spread that it started being used by newspapers. But it was not used in public debate until 10 November 2005, when Donald Tusk, chairman of the Civic Platform, used the phrase "mohair coalition" during his speech in Sejm. It was actually the first time, when the elderly people have noticed the existence of the epithet and started to consider it very offensive.

Among the youth, especially high school and college students, the term "mohair berets" gained more popularity after the parliamentary and presidential victory of right wing party Law and Justice, strongly supported by Radio Maryja; especially after its attempts in June 2006 to introduce religion (which in case of Polish schools, including secular, obligatory schools, is not the same as Religious Education but is the course of Roman Catholic religious doctrine) as a mandatory part of state exams.

Radio Maryja tends to blame the introduction of this epithet on Gazeta Wyborcza, although the term was widely used before; most likely its first use in a major newspaper occurred on 23 October 2004 in Rzeczpospolita.

"Moherowe Berety" single cover, by "Big Cyc". The label on lady's coat says: "Parish Patrol"

Moherowe Berety is also a name of a song by Big Cyc, a Polish satirical punk-rock band, which was also released as a single, but is not commonly played on air, mainly due to its strongly political lyrics. Listen to Moherowe Berety [1] (whole song from the official artists' web site).